Torrential rains leave 10,000 homeless in Niger
Pastor Dale Morgan
Torrential rains leave 10,000 homeless in Niger*
NIAMEY, Aug 30 (AFP) Aug 30, 2006
Torrential rains have left some 10,000 people homeless in recent weeks
in the usually dry deserts of Niger, the west African state's government
said Tuesday.
The worst hit town is Bilma, northeast of Agadez, in the heart of the
Sahara desert, which has been badly damaged and where some 3,400 are now
without shelter, according to a cabinet statement.
Some 63 millimetres (two and a half inches) of rain have fallen on the
city, the equivalent of the total over the past 10 years, according to
the statement.
In the southeast in Zinder, the second largest city of Niger, 2,177 are
homeless after their houses collapsed from the rains.
Other areas affected are Madaoua, in the northwest of the country, where
2,260 have lost their homes and Dogon-Doutchi in the south where 1,370
people are affected.
The rest are scattered across Ingal and Tabelot, in north of the
country, where dwellings built with clay easily collapse in a few
millimetres of rains. The government said 1,050 tonnes of food, blankets
and mosquito nets were needed for the flood victims.
Many of the disaster victims are already temporarily housed in
government buildings.
Tents, food, blankets and medicinal drugs have already been sent to
Bilma, said the government.
Neighbouring Libya dispatched humanitarian aid including tents,
medicines and clothes to the disaster victims in Ingal a fortnight ago.
Last year more than three million people were affected by a serious food
crisis in Niger, the result of drought and attacks by locusts which
devastated harvests.